if he
came in alone for his drink, the barmaid said he did so and was prepared
to swear that nobody spoke to him in the bar but herself. And he'd gone
again afore the down train left. But at Totnes, where Joe was known by
sight and where he ought to have changed for Ashburton, none had seen him.

The police followed the Moreton clue, but nobody there reported sight of
Joe on the night he disappeared. He'd got a friend or two at Moreton; but
not one had fallen in with him since the autumn ram fair, when he was over
there with his nephew for the day.

The law done all in its power; the down lines were searched from Newton,
and Amos Gregory offered a reward of fifty pounds for any news of his lost
brother; but not a speck, or sign, of Joe came to light. A month passed
and the nine days' wonder began to die down a bit.

I met Amos about then, and we was both on horseback riding to Ashburton,
and he told me that he was bound for the lawyers, to make inquiry of how
the law stood in the matter and what he ought to do about Vitifer Farm.

"My nephew Ernest, is carrying on there," he told me, "and he's a good
farmer enough and can be trusted to do all that's right; but there's no
money to be touched and I must find out if they'll tell me what have got
to be done and how the law stands."

He was a lot cut up, for him and his brother had always been very good
friends; and he was troubled for his nephew also, because Ernest had lost
his nerve a good deal over the tragedy.

"He's taking on very bad and can't get over it," said Amos to me. "The
natural weakness of his character have come out under this shock, and the
poor chap be like a fowl running about with its head off. He never had
more wits than please God he should have, and this great disaster finds
him unmanned. He will have it his uncle's alive. He's heard of men losing
their memory and getting into wrong trains and so on. But I tell him that
with all the noise that's been made over the country, if Joe was living,
though he might be as mad as a hatter, 'tis certain by now we should have
wind of him."

"Certain sure," I said. "He's a goner without a doubt, and 'twill take a
miracle ever to get to the bottom of this."

I was reminded of them words a fortnight later, for it did take a miracle
to find the shocking truth. In fact you may say it took two. And one
without the other might just as well not have happened. And 'tis no good
saying the days of miracles be passe